Railways to recruit over 4 lakh people till 2021: Goyal

New Delhi (IANS): The railways will employ over four lakh people by 2021, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal announced on Wednesday indicating that the recruitment under the 10 percent quota for economically weaker sections would begin soon.

Addressing a press conference here, he said that at present the Railways have a sanctioned strength of 15.06 lakh employees, of which 12.23 lakh personnel were on the rolls while the remaining 2.82 lakh posts are vacant.

"Last year we undertook the recruitment process for over 1.51 lakh posts, leaving 1.31 lakh posts vacant. And in the coming two years, about 99,000 posts would lie vacant as 53,000 and 46,000 railway employees would retire in 2019 and 2020 respectively. 

He said recruitment for 2.3 lakh posts will be completed in the next two years. 

He said that the first phase of fresh recruitment of 1.31 lakh posts would be initiated in February-March, 2019 and as per reservation policy of the government, around 19,715, 9,857 and 35,485 would be reserved for Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes and Other Backward Classes. 

"And as per 103rd Constitutional Amendment recently passed by the Parliament, 10 percent of these vacancies i.e. around 13,100 shall be filled in from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS). This cycle shall be completed by April-May, 2020," Goyal said.

The second phase of recruitment of approximately 99,000 personnel against the vacancies arising out of retirements shall be initiated in May-June 2020 and completed by July-August 2021. 

"And as per the reservation policy of the government, approximately 15,000, 7,500, 27,000 and 10,000 posts shall be reserved for SC, ST, OBC and EWS candidates," he said.

The Minister also announced the extension of 22 train services across the country.

He said the decision was taken after the success of the services of the Gatimaan Express was extended upto Jhansi. 

Trains whose services has been extended include, Rourkela-Koraput Express which will now go till Jagdalpur, the services of the Jaipur-Kamakhya Express has been extended till Udaipur, services of Secunderabad-Tandur has been extended to Chitapur, services of Bandra-Patna Express (weekly) has been extended till Saharsa. 

He said that the extension of the train services will help in the utilisation of the railway assets and infrastructure and also help in serving the people and bringing development.